"There’s a common misconception that owning a sports team is a great business move. Actually Carlos Santana Jersey , it’s a rotten one.Until you sell, that is. Then — wow!On a day-to-day basis, sports franchises are BEETs — Billionaires’ Expensive Ego Trips. They’re the corporate version of a trophy wife, without the prenup — something for really rich guys to show off to other really rich guys. They’re not a way to make money.Take the Chicago White Sox — please.Forbes’ annual list of MLB valuations has the White Sox pegged in the mid-range, at $1.5 billion. The New York Yankees are highest, at $4 billion, followed by the Los Angeles Dodgers at 3 and that other Chicago team at 2.9.It’s easy to think that Forbes is just blowing smoke. Almost all MLB teams are privately held (the Toronto Blue Jays and Atlanta Braves are part of much larger public companies), so financial information is sketchy. As private firms, teams can legally move revenues and expenses among business units. Still, Forbes has shown through the years that it has excellent sources, and in the latest case of a sale in MLB, they had the Miami Marlins pegged at one billion and the sale was for 1.2, so they were low, not high.Now, $1.5 billion is a whole lot more than the $19 million Jerry Reinsdorf and friends paid for the team in 1981. A whole lot. But the operating story is much different.Forbes says for 2018, the Sox had revenues of $226 million and EBITDA — Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation or Amortization, a common way to measure cash flow — of $30 million. That’s a tremendous return on investment, but a crummy return on equity (ROE) – just 2%. In fact, it’s also one year of that Manny guy — though he would presumably have brought in much higher revenues as well.No established business in any other industry would be happy with 2%. Sure, sports businesses get some special tax breaks, but pretty much all big business buys itself special tax privileges these days, so it doesn’t make much difference.It’s not just the White Sox who are pitiful. The Yankees ROE is one-third of a percent, the Dodgers’ just more than 2% http://www.philliesfanproshop.com/authentic-pat-neshek-jersey , that other Chicago team’s 3%, etc. Some team ROEs are negative.New York University measures EBITDA among publicly traded companies by industry, and they show no industry has remotely as bad a return as sports franchises. Overall, the ratio is about 12-to-1. The highest category is real estate development, at 34-to-1 — another business where the payoff is in capital gains at the end, not operating profits. Sports come in twice that high.If you like to delve into stats they don’t involve baseball itself, an analyst named Daniel Turney has a tremendous piece about owning a sports franchise. He uses the Portland Trail Blazers as an example, but the principles cross leagues. Turney won’t have you rushing out to raise a billion to buy a team.(The rule of value being at sale of the team even applied to the brief period when the Cleveland Indians sold non-voting shares to the public in the late 1990s. The initial offering was at $15, some of us were lucky enough to buy in at half that, and the shares were bought back for about $23 less than two years later. Turned out to be a great investment in the end, though it didn’t look that way for a while for the initial buyers.)Still, the BEETs go on. They don’t go on forever — the average MLB ownership tenure is just more than 13 years. But there’s no better form of enterprise for the employment of Greater Fool Theory: The idea that no matter how dumb your purchase was, you can find someone dumber to bail you out. Well, either dumber, or, more likely, so rich that your buyer can afford all the BEETs they want.Reinsdorf, et al., have owned the Sox for three times longer than average. The question is why, since he no longer shows much of any interest in improving either the White Sox or the Chicago Bulls. (Yes, there was a puff piece in USA Today in 2017 where he claimed to care about fans and winning and all that good stuff. That puff piece is evidence-free.)The answer just has to be taxes. That’s just a guess, but what else could it be? Reinsdorf is on record saying his heirs should sell the Sox when he dies, so why not sell now, hopefully to someone who cares? Taxes. Taxes. Taxes. Death and taxes.One of the oddities of U.S. Tax Code (probably not promoted by poor folks) is that upon a property owner’s death, heirs get to reset the tax basis of the property to its value at time of death. In the case of the Sox Will Middlebrooks Jersey , that means, were he to die today, the Reinsdorf family pays capital gains on any sale price over his share of $1.5 billion, not of $19 million. Heck of a difference. The estate tax will be well into Estate Tax territory, but that applies whether it’s in the form of sports teams, cash or Van Goghs. And it just may be that a CPA/tax attorney/real estate mogul knows a way to put the nebulous valuation of sports franchises to his heirs’ advantage there as well.So, if you’re just holding out for a huge tax break, why bother trying to be good? Why not just be tight-fisted Jerry?And tight-fisted he is. The MLB average is for team payrolls to run just more than 50% of revenue. The White Sox in 2018, with the lowest payroll in MLB, came in at 29%. That was supposed to be an aberration, the nadir of the alleged rebuild, but it no longer looks that way.Of course, there’s a way Jerry could prove us wrong, but I wouldn’t want to Harp on that.Even with that pitiful payroll, though, the EBITDA came in it at 2%. Yet he holds on. Has to be for taxes.Hey, it’s tax season. One more thing to blame the tax man for.The IRS should give White Sox fans a big break. Just thinking of Reinsdorf owning the Sox is taxing enough. TORONTO (AP) — Houston is heating up as October approaches.The Astros clinched another AL West title and reached 100 wins for the second straight season, beating the Toronto Blue Jays 4-1 Tuesday night behind Alex Bregman’s two-run homer.Houston improved to 100-57 and was assured of first place hours later when second-place Oakland (95-63) lost at Seattle. The Astros will open the Division Series at home against Cleveland on Oct. 5.Astros manager A.J. Hinch, said he would not stay up to watch the outcome of the Athletics game.“I’m going to go to bed,” he said. “Do you hear my voice? I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and figure it out.”The Astros need three wins in their final five games to break the franchise record for victories in a season, set in 1998.“I’m proud of this team, and they’re not done yet,” Hinch said. “To be at 100 and climbing is remarkable for this team, and we should be very proud.”Houston is 18-4 in September and 54-22 on the road, both best in the major leagues.“We really haven’t played our best baseball until lately http://www.philliesfanproshop.com/authentic-pat-neshek-jersey Jersey ,” Bregman said. “That’s a good sign heading into the postseason. I think we’re in a good spot right now.”Roberto Osuna needed just six pitches in the ninth for his 20th save in 21 chances. Earlier Tuesday, assault charges against Osuna were dropped because the complainant, who lives in Mexico, made clear she would not travel to Toronto to testify. Osuna agreed to stay away from the alleged victim for one year and continue counseling.Traded from Toronto to Houston in July, Osuna was booed by Blue Jays fans for the second straight game, starting with when he entered and then in between pitches. Speaking through a translator, Osuna said he was untroubled by the negative reaction.“When I came into the game I was focused on what I had to do, so it didn’t affect me,” he said.Josh James (2-0) allowed one run and four hits in five innings in his third big league start.“It was probably the least efficient outing of his young career,” Hinch said. “He had to battle through some delivery issues.”Bregman went 2 for 5 and extended his club-record streak of reaching base safely on the road to 53 games, then longest since 59 in a row by the New York Yankees’ Derek Jeter in 2006 and 2007.Bregman hit his 31st homer, a two-run drive in the first off Sam Gaviglio. Billy McKinney’s sixth homer cut the gap in half in the third, but Houston widened its lead in the sixth when Tyler White chased Gaviglio with an RBI single and pinch-hitter Evan Gattis had a sacrifice fly off Danny Barnes.Gaviglio (3-9) allowed four runs — three earned — and six hits in five-plus innings, his fifth straight winless outing. With Toronto’s starting rotation dealing with injuries all season, Gaviglio has made a career-high 23 starts for the Blue Jays, winning twice.“It’s been a good experience, a lot of learning,” he said. “I wish I could have been a little more consistent.”PRESSLY IMPRESSINGAstros RHP Ryan Pressly struck out Toronto’s Justin Smoak on three pitches to leave the bases loaded in the seventh. Pressly has not allowed a run in his past 20 games.“I love Pressly against anybody in the league right now,” Hinch said. “He has effective breaking balls and he’s got 96-97 if he needs it.”TRAINER’S ROOMAstros: SS Carlos Correa (back) missed his sixth straight game. Correa is expected to return Wednesday and start at designated hitter.Blue Jays: RHP Aaron Sanchez had season-ending surgery Tuesday on his troublesome right index finger and is expected to be ready for spring training. The surgery was performed in Los Angeles by Dr. Steven Shin. The Blue Jays did not disclose the specifics of the surgery or say what it was intended to repair. Sanchez went 4-6 with a 4.89 ERA in 20 starts, including a 1-1 record and 6.04 ERA in five starts after returning from a 54-game absence. Sanchez was hurt hours before a June 21 start at the Los Angeles Angels when his finger got caught in a suitcase. … INF Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (strained left hamstring) will miss the rest of the season. Gurriel was injured running out a ground ball in the first inning Monday.UP NEXTAstros RHP Chris Devenski (2-2, 4.12) makes his first start of the season Wednesday following 47 relief appearances. RHP Sean Reid-Foley (2-4, 5.40) starts for the Blue Jays in Toronto’s home finale.